This Is The Friendliest Small Town in Louisiana
As Louisiana's oldest permanent European-founded settlement, dating to 1714, Natchitoches draws visitors with landmarks like Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site but keeps them coming back for the friendliness. The brick-paved Front Street Historic District lines up along Cane River Lake, and locals greet you on the sidewalks like you've already met. The town hosts the Natchitoches Christmas Festival, a six-week run of holiday lights, parades, and fireworks that traces back to 1927. Restaurants like Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant have pulled in regulars for decades with Creole-inspired Southern cooking. These are just a few of the things that make Natchitoches the friendliest town in Louisiana.
Natchitoches History
Natchitoches was founded in 1714 as a French outpost in what would become the state of Louisiana. The original purpose was to promote trade with the Natchitoches people and to establish a French presence opposite the Spanish in Mexico. French Canadian Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis established the post after arriving at the Natchitoches village on the Red River. He built two huts in the village and left a small detachment to guard supplies and trade with the local people.
In 1716, a small company of colonial troops was sent to build and garrison an outpost to keep Spanish forces in Texas from pushing east. The fort took its name from the French patron saint and the local people: Fort St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches. It operated as a military and trade center until 1762, when France ceded all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain at the close of the Seven Years' War.
The original fort's exact location is unknown, but Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site in Natchitoches is a full-scale reconstruction open daily for guided tours and staffed with costumed interpreters. The interpreters reenact daily life in the 18th century with demonstrations of weaving, woodworking, and leatherwork. The site also includes a short orientation film and a museum with artifacts from the period.
Natchitoches Christmas Festival
What started in 1927 as a small Christmas lighting effort has become one of the longest-running community holiday celebrations in the country. The Natchitoches Christmas Festival now stretches roughly six weeks, running from the Saturday before Thanksgiving through January 6. Each night, more than 300,000 lights and over 100 set pieces line the riverbank.
The displays along Front Street are free to view, with food vendors and music throughout the season. The festival also includes the Festival of Lights Parade, which starts on the grounds of Northwestern State University and runs through the cobblestone streets of the Historic District. Thousands of people line the route to watch themed floats, dance groups, parade queens, and costumed characters including Santa Claus.
Downtown Natchitoches
Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant has anchored downtown Natchitoches since 1967, when butcher James Lasyone rented the bottom half of the 1859 Phoenix Lodge building on Second Street and opened his Meat Pie Kitchen. The restaurant is best known for the Natchitoches meat pie (a half-moon-shaped fried turnover filled with seasoned ground beef and pork) and rounds it out with red beans and rice, gumbo, and other regional staples. Now run by Lasyone's daughters Angela and Tina, it has drawn locals and visitors for nearly six decades.
Downtown is also home to the Natchitoches Art Guild and Gallery, which promotes local artists with rotating exhibitions, workshops, and demonstrations. Art Along the Bricks runs each spring on Front Street with two- and three-dimensional work by regional artists.
Natchitoches City Park serves all ages, with tennis courts, exercise equipment, walking trails, playground equipment, picnic pavilions, and shaded picnic tables.
Other Natchitoches Festivals and Events
Louisiana is known for Mardi Gras, and Natchitoches keeps its celebrations family-friendly. During the day, the Krewe of Wag-Uns Children and Pet Parade rolls through downtown with costumed kids, dogs, and decorated wagons. At night, the Krewe of Dionysos parades through the historic district on traditional floats.
The Natchitoches Jazz/R&B Festival takes over Front Street each May. For nearly three decades the festival has paired national acts with local talent across country, jazz, blues, and funk. In March, Bloomin' on the Bricks brings a spring garden festival to the downtown riverbank, with vendors selling ferns, herbs, and flowering baskets alongside yard art, ironwork, and landscaping pieces. The event also includes live music, kids' activities, and seasonal tulip displays at Beau Jardin.
Louisiana's Friendliest Town
People come to Natchitoches for the history but return again and again for the welcome at places like Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant and for the community that comes out for events like the Christmas Festival. As Louisiana's oldest town, it remains shaped by French, Spanish, and Creole influences that still mark the food, the architecture, and the way people interact.
